“Are we going to be the world leader in technology 10 years from now or five years from now if that pace continues?” Mantella said.

He posed the rhetorical question to a crowd of 150, many of them computer science and information technology students at Armstrong Atlantic State University. Mantella’s address headlined the afternoon-long TechFest 2013 held at Armstrong’s Science Center.

Georgia is positioned to lead the nation’s turnaround in technology workforce growth, Mantella said. The industry has “momentum” within the state, with tech company revenues accounting for 17 percent of Georgia’s gross domestic product.

The state is ahead of the national average in terms of producing college-educated engineers, ranking behind only California, Virginia, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

And with tech jobs in Georgia paying twice the average salary of the state’s other industries combined — $81,000 per year versus $41,000 — the state is gradually becoming a technology epicenter.

“We are seeing organic growth and attracting tech companies from beyond our borders,” Mantella said. “It’s about the growth and getting a cluster and enough businesses in a particular area to drive talent to the area.”

Metro Atlanta is thriving as a tech hub, particularly in the financial technology and payment process sector, better known as FinTech. Seventy percent of all payment processing flows through Georgia, Mantella said.

Georgia has also seen gains in mobile technology, health and information technology, logistics, communications services, data centers and interactive marketing.

Georgians needs to do a better job of increasing awareness of its success in the technology industry, Mantella said. Beyond the state borders, Georgia is best known for “peanuts, pecans, pine trees and poultry” and as the home of child beauty queen Honey Boo Boo.

“When I visit our senators and congressmen in Washington, they all have bowls and bags of peanuts out for visitors,” Mantella said. “We need to change that perception.”

Mantella’s speech drew a standing-room only crowd to the Science Center lecture hall. The Technology Association of Georgia’s local program director, Brady Cannon, said the turnout signals a turnaround in local attitudes.

“All too often here people leave Savannah in search of technology jobs because they feel there is no tech community here,” Cannon said. “This event demonstrates that the opposite is true.”